▽ THRESHOLDS @ TATE

As part of the biennial Thresholds at Tate Liverpool aims to decipher the uncertain boundaries of personal, geo-political and cultural identities. It is effectively split into three sections – Stranger than self, Shifting Boundaries and Territories in the Making. I was particularly drawn to Shifting Boundaries as it investigated worldwide travel, or in other words, tourism. This was an interesting subject matter I believe, as I had seldom come across it before within other parts of the biennial. In terms of the curatorial approach of the exhibition, however, I felt quite critical; for example, in one area of the exhibition all of the photographic pieces had been placed together. This was detrimental I feel, as it made all of the photographic pieces emerge into one and thus made it hard to distinguish between them. I believe that categorising pieces by aesthetic or medium is an extremely lacklustre curatorial foundation to employ. As the photographic works were what captured my interest within the exhibition I was quite disappointed that they were curated in such a predictable way.

The two pieces, which predominantly caught my attention, were Common Sense by Martin Parr and Sophie Calle’s series of works. Martin Parr’s Common Sense is essentially a vast portfolio of colour laser copies of photographs, which had been taken and accumulated over four years (1995-1999). What struck me the most about the photographs were their lurid colour – it gives them a very kitsch, tawdry aesthetic, which reflects the theme of global consumerism quite effectively. Although the images are quite tawdry and are of things which most of us have seen before, Parr has in some laudable way made these proletarian images possess a picturesque quality. I think it is truly commendable how Parr has taken everyday images but tried to capture an essence of beauty and importance within them – this is something of a Warholian concept, which I believe will always sustain power because it means producing art that everyone can resonate with.

Calle’s series of pieces from her project The Hotel compromise both photograph and text. They were produced as a result of Calle’s previous employment as a chambermaid in a Venetian hotel. In the course of her cleaning duties she began to examine the personal belongings of hotel guests. Inexplicably voyeuristic, Calle would often find herself reading diaries, postcards, letters and notes, as well as searching through suitcases, wardrobes and drawers. What is even more shocking is that Calle would sometimes go to the unbelievable extent of spraying herself with hotel guest’s perfumes, applying on their make up and eating their leftovers. There were also times when Calle would stand outside rooms and eavesdrop into occupant’s conversations, and other times when she would peer into rooms to catch a glimpse of the guests. Calle’s pieces seem somewhat part performance art and part photographic; her performance however is obviously a private one, no one knows of it until after the tangible art is created. The undeniably voyeuristic nature of Calle’s piece reminded me of the work of Kohei Yoshiyuki’s that is currently exhibiting at the Open Eye gallery.  However, Yoshiyuki was stationary to the voyeurism he encountered, were as Calle is un-shamefully central to it. I think voyeurism is an interesting subject matter to explore considering how the Internet and social networking has today took away our means of privacy. Calle investigating the private aspects of the hotel guest’s lives can be seen as a figurative for those today who use the internet or social networking sites as a means to peer into the lives of others.